The horrifying story of the unspeakable acts inflicted upon Elisabeth Fritzl and the children fathered by her father, Josef Fritzl, just goes on and on. The New Zealand Herald reports that he was a “despot” who, in addition to keeping his daughter locked up for 24 years while sexually abusing her and fathering 7 children with her, took great pleasure in humiliating his wife with whom he hadn’t had marital relations in years. “Sepp,” as Josef Fritzl was known, would humiliate his wife of 51 years with “crude, dirty jokes” as well as “tell[ing] her off in front of the others.”

Sepp would go down to the basement every morning at 9 am to, allegedly, complete technical drawings of machines. He would sometimes spend the entire night in the dungeon. Fritzl, a retired electrical engineer, allegedly threatened his captives, his own flesh and blood, with being gassed to death if they disobeyed him.